Daring to Be Different: Missouri's Remarkable Owen Sisters

7. The Twilight Years

7 The Twilight Years As Agnes Owen grew older and more frail, the three daughters living with her spent more time at home with their mother. She continued to manage the family estate with the help of Herbert and his son Stephen. When her brother John’s children decided to sell their part of Burr Oak Grove, she kept her share to pass on to her children. In December 1911, Agnes Cargill Owen died at her home, with her five children and most of the grandchildren at her bedside. Only the two grandchildren who lived in Seattle could not be there. The minister from Christ Church, where she had been a member since its first service in 1851, conducted her funeral service in the Owen family parlor, and she was buried beside her husband and her two infant children. The death of this remarkable pioneer woman marked the end of an era in St. Joseph. Having managed the family fortune so well, she was one of the richest women of the city when she died, and her passing made each of her surviving children independently wealthy. After their mother’s death in 1911, the “literary sisters,” as they were sometimes called, now had more freedom to travel, to entertain, or to work at their professions with fewer interruptions . But first, they had many decisions to make and duties to perform: writing letters and thank-you notes, disposing of their mother’s personal possessions, and settling her estate. Like her 00 0 The Twilight Years Agnes Cargill Owen was well regarded by the people of St. Joseph and by her children. Luella Owen expressed her devotion to her mother in her book Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills, published in 1898: “To My Mother This Book is affectionately dedicated.” (Courtesy of the St. Joseph Historical Society) husband before her, Agnes Owen left no will, and her property was divided equally among her five children. Agnes and James had taught their children the wisdom of keeping the family estate intact, and in turn they decided to keep the Owen family holdings together, with each heir continuing to draw a comfortable income. 0 Daring to Be Different After their mother’s death, the sisters may have considered relocating from their childhood home. They no doubt received much unsought advice on this and other issues from family and friends. Mary might have enjoyed living in New York or even London, closer to her publishers and editors. For Ella, either New York or Washington, D.C., would have been nearer to the headquarters of her geographic and geological societies. Juliette, on the other hand, could hardly observe, paint, and write about Missouri birds and plants while living in the East. Missouri and the St. Joseph area provided resources for much of Mary’s and Ella’s work as well, and was home to them. Moreover, all three sisters drew on the companionship of one another and the company of their brother and his family. They also had to consider that they now ranged in age from fifty-two to sixty-one, late for single women to start life over in a new setting in the early twentieth century, and Mary may have remembered her homesickness during her year at Vassar. If they remained where they were, in the house that had long been paid for, their living expenses would be minimal to modest. Whatever their reasons, they ultimately decided to remain in St. Joseph, in the house in which they had grown up. In addition to their emotional ties to their native city, they had sound financial reasons for doing so. They turned their attention to the duties at hand, reading and sorting old family papers and correspondence, learning more about their parents, grandparents, and more distant family members than they had previously known. Ella was especially interested in the genealogy of the Cargill and Owen ancestors and was writing a book on the subject, but Mary and Juliette must have found some details of their family history of interest as well, especially that of their father. All soon took up again the work to which they had devoted their energies for so many years. In 1912, the year after Agnes Owen’s death, Mary was scheduled to represent the United States at the International Folk-Lore Congress in London, and she was busy preparing the paper she would present. After...